1990 Toronto Blue Jays season

The 1990 Toronto Blue Jays season was the franchise's 14th season of Major League Baseball. It resulted in the Blue Jays finishing second in the American League East with a record of 86 wins and 76 losses. It was their first full season in the SkyDome, where an MLB attendance record of 3,885,284 was set that year. The Blue Jays led the division by 1½ games over the Boston Red Sox with one week left in the season. However, they then proceeded to drop six of their last eight games, losing the division title to the Red Sox by a two-game margin.

Transactions

Transactions by the Toronto Blue Jays during the off-season before the 1990 season.

Regular season

The 1990 season belonged to third baseman Kelly Gruber. He had career highs in home runs and RBIs, with 31 and 118, respectively. Along with outfielder George Bell and pitcher Dave Stieb, Gruber was named an American League All-Star, stealing two bases in the All-Star Game on July 10 at Chicago's Wrigley Field. A finalist for the American League MVP Award, at season's end he was named the AL's Silver Slugger and Gold Glove Award winner at third base.
The Blue Jays were involved in two no-hitters during the 1990 season. On June 29, Dave Stewart of the Oakland Athletics no-hit them by a score of 5–0. On September 2, Jays ace Dave Stieb finally got the no-hitter that had eluded him, blanking the Cleveland Indians 3–0.

Opening Day starters

Transactions

Transactions for the Toronto Blue Jays during the 1990 regular season.

1990 MLB draft

June 4, 1990: 1990 Major League Baseball draft
*Steve Karsay was drafted by the Jays in the 1st round.
*Future Heisman Trophy winner Chris Weinke was drafted by the Blue Jays. Player signed August 20, 1990.
*Felipe Crespo was drafted by the Blue Jays in the 3rd round. Player signed September 22, 1990.
*Howard Battle was drafted by the Blue Jays in the 4th round. Player signed June 6, 1990.
*Ricardo Jordan was drafted by the Blue Jays in the 37th round.

Eric Lindros

The hype around Eric Lindros during his early career led to an exclusive deal with sports card manufacturer SCORE. Attempting to leverage this arrangement as much as possible, he was even featured on a baseball card showing him as a third baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays, although he never actually played baseball. He was only there taking batting practice one day.

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C		125	346	99	.286	15	49
1B		153	557	167	.300	35	88
2B		117	391	95	.243	6	41
3B		150	592	162	.274	31	118
SS		161	635	175	.276	4	66
LF		142	562	149	.265	21	86
CF		147	588	156	.265	3	51
RF		127	463	122	.263	15	65
DH		111	358	95	.265	14	48

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
	84	260	60	.231	12	32
	87	250	59	.236	5	22
	50	170	36	.212	1	15
	57	97	28	.289	2	16
	33	88	24	.273	2	7
	33	80	18	.225	1	9
	49	72	14	.194	0	8
	19	53	16	.302	0	7
	15	12	1	.083	0	1
	6	5	1	.200	0	0
	3	5	0	.000	0	0
	9	3	1	.333	0	0
	1	2	1	.500	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
	33	208.2	18	6	2.93	125
	33	203.0	13	17	4.34	115
	27	154.2	13	7	4.25	88
	30	140.0	9	9	4.76	49
	5	20.1	2	2	5.31	5

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
	43	189.0	11	6	3.14	115
	27	68.2	3	5	4.06	43
	13	21.1	0	3	5.48	19
	3	15.2	2	1	4.02	3
	6	12.1	0	0	5.11	4

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
	61	2	4	32	2.17	75
	73	2	8	11	3.45	112
	59	4	4	1	3.83	54
	44	6	4	0	4.73	72
	11	0	0	0	6.06	7
	4	0	0	0	0.00	5
	4	0	0	0	0.00	0
	2	1	0	0	6.75	0
	1	0	0	0	9.00	0

Award winners

Kelly Gruber, Player of the Month Award, SeptemberKelly Gruber, Silver Slugger AwardKelly Gruber, Gold Glove Award

All-Star Game

George Bell, OF
Kelly Gruber, 3B
Dave Stieb, P